Natasha and Rita take little Peter into the inner room of the stone house.

An oil lamp was lit outside the stone house, and the flames the size of beans made the room look unusually dim, and only old Sheila and Surdak were left in the room, neither of whom spoke, and the atmosphere became extremely dull for a while.

Old Sheila sat at the doorway of the inner room, looking at Surdak with a wary expression.

"Where's my little Dark?" Old Sheila asked in a trembling voice.

Her eyes were full of expectation, pleading, and faint sadness, and she seemed to have some bad premonitions, but before she got the truth, old Sheila still wanted to ask, to get a definite answer.

The question that old Sheila held in her heart was finally asked.

Surdak rubbed his hands, took a deep breath, and said: "Died in battle, a month before completing military service, the Bena Legion launched the Battle of Moyunling......"

Hearing Surdak's first words, old Sheila felt that the whole sky was about to fall, her nails were almost embedded in the flesh of her palm, and her heart was like a mess of rags, which were twisted together with both hands, and all the dirty water in it was wrenched out.

Surdak spoke in great detail, telling Old Sheila exactly what had happened to him in the two months of the expeditionary corps.

The 57th Heavy Infantry Regiment is part of the Bednar Legion, a well-known heavy infantry regiment that has gone out of the city of Highlandza, and in the past few years since the outbreak of the Plane War, the number of soldiers killed in battle has been increasing, and almost more than half of the young people in the village who are serving in the military will die on the battlefield. When Surda overcame his military service, the old Sheila also took out all the family's savings in order to let Surdak join this excellent infantry regiment, hoping that her son would return safely, but after four years of hard waiting, she was looking forward to a piece of death.

Old Sheila leaned against the stone wall by the door, and thought with a sad face: if he had borrowed a little more money from Ken, he could have allowed Surdak to stay in the city of Highlandsa for military service, and maybe this would not have happened.

In the years when such plane wars broke out frequently, it was not uncommon for civilians to join the army and die on the battlefield under the system of universal military service.

It's just that this kind of thing is spread on one's head, and that kind of grief and sadness can never be experienced by outsiders.

Old Sheila tried to cover her mouth, not wanting to cry out loud, her eyes were long gone, and her rough hands were covered with calluses and tears.

Surdak said to Sheila Sr., "Before he died, he wanted me to return to the village of Wall to take care of you. ”

Old Sheila glanced at Surdak, the guard in her eyes had been cleared a lot, and asked him, "Are you Dark's companion on the battlefield?" ”

"Yes!" Surdak replied.

Old Sheila looked at the young man in front of her.

In a trance, the figure of the young man coincided with the memory of Little Dack, who wanted to reach out and touch the face of old Sheila, wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and said, "Let Little Dack take care of you!" ’

Old Sheila still wanted to take a look at the illusory little Duck, but unfortunately the illusory light and shadow disappeared without a trace in an instant.

Sitting in front of her was still this strange young knight who had a slight resemblance to Surdak.

Old Sheila lowered her head and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, she thought about it a lot, thinking about her future life.

"Our family lives quite well in Wall Village, there are clothes to protect us from the cold, as well as rice and wheat grains to fill our stomachs, although life is not rich, but it is not too difficult, although our life is ordinary, but at least we can get by, we don't need you to take care of us." Sheila Sr. finally made her decision and said to Surdak.

Old Sheila said that life was not difficult, but Surdak did not believe it.

“……”

In the face of the distrust on the face of old Sheila, Surdak did not continue to say anything.

There was no extra bed left for Surdak, so old Sheila made a makeshift bed out of the stone house, using the only chair and half a wooden box, so that Surdak could sleep there, and she did not return to her room, but sat on a wooden bench, leaning against the door of the inner room, and kept silent watch all night with her eyes slightly closed.

Surdak rode his horse for a day's journey, and lay hungry on a bed made of wooden boxes and chairs, and slept in a daze.

In the morning, the sun shone through the window into the stone house, and a dazzling light shone on Surdak's face, and Surdak wanted to twist his head away in his sleep, but he hit his head on the back of the chair and woke up instantly.

A bowl of gruel mixed with cassava and crushed chestnuts fell in front of Surdak with a 'clang', and old Sheila turned away with a cold face.

Surdak quickly sat up from the wooden box and drank the bowl of gruel that didn't look very good, the cassava chunks in the porridge had a faint fishy smell, but it was not too unpleasant, the door of the inner room was tightly closed, but through the gap in the door panel, a pair of clear eyes could be seen looking out curiously, Surdak recognized it as little Peter at a glance.

Little Peter tried to run out of the cabin, but was hugged tightly by the woman behind him, and even covered his mouth.

Surdak stood awkwardly in the stone house outside, scratched his head and said, "I want to look around the village, I have heard a lot about the village. ”

He tidied up the monster leather armor on his body, and the reformed Roman sword and blue iris shield were left in the stone house, turned around and bowed his head and walked out of the house.

Old Sheila looked at Surdak's back, she stood in the doorway, and watched without saying a word as Surdak untied the reins of Gubolai's horse, watched him give the horse half a bucket of water, and then pulled the reins, and led the horse out of the yard, until she was far away, and then sat down in the doorway......

……

It was not until dinner time that Surdak led his horse back from outside the village.

The Gubolai horse, with its belly round, stood in the yard and flicked its tail leisurely.

Old Sheila had prepared a normal dinner for Surdak, scones with chestnut noodles, a bowl of black stew, nothing else, and it seemed that the others had finished eating. Rita and Natasha remained in the back room and refused to come out, but this time little Peter happily ran out and pestered Surdak to tell him stories about the battlefield.

Looking at Little Peter's eyes full of longing, Surdak could only bite the bullet and say: "People will die on the battlefield, whether it is a nobleman or a commoner, there is no difference in front of the evil spirits, they are very vicious......

Surdak grabbed a handful of lizard claw fruit from his backpack and pulled out a dagger with a cold light from the outside of his thigh, so frightened that old Sheila, who was wiping the table next to her, trembled and almost fell out of the rag in her hand.

Little Peter looked at the delicate dagger in Surdak's hand with envy, watching him peel out the nuts while telling the story, Little Peter had never eaten such sweet nuts, and ate more than a dozen in succession, Surdak was worried that Little Peter had indigestion, so he stopped after eating only fifteen, and promised Little Peter that if he was willing to sleep on time, there would be nuts to eat tomorrow.

At last persuaded little Peter to go to bed, and old Sheila took Surdak to another room, where the stone house was so small that there could only be a wooden bed, and on the wooden shelves against the wall lay half a bag of chestnut rice, and in the corner of the wall was a pile of cassava with a slightly wrinkled skin, which was probably their daily ration.

Old Sheila relayed the shabby but fairly clean sheets and said earnestly to Surdak: "You will sleep here tonight, and you can leave tomorrow morning!" ”

Seeing that old Sheila had some firm eyes, Surdak could only sigh lightly and said:

"Alright then, I'll leave tomorrow, I'll stay in the city of Highlanza for a while, and if you need anything, you can ask the people in the village to bring me a letter, and the knights who go to the city of Highlandsa will definitely find me."

Seeing that Surdak agreed, old Sheila turned and walked out.

Surdak lay on his bed, almost seeing the stars in the night sky through the thatched gaps in the roof.

Thinking that he had not been able to fulfill Surdak's deathbed instructions, he could only leave the gold coins he had with them, and if he could hide them properly, he should be comfortable enough to live the rest of his life.

Thinking of this, Surdak took the bag of gold coins out of his magic belt bag and hid them in the cassava pile in the corner.

Lying on the bed of old Sheila, Surdak tossed and turned and could not fall asleep, and it was not until the moment before dawn that Surdak fell into a deep sleep.